today marks the release of matthew good’s latest album. it’s an amazing piece of work and should be purchased by any fan of music. for those who don’t know, canada has kept this phenomenal artist hidden for the last ten years. sooner or later, the world will wake up to his genius. i’m fairly confident he can’t stay hidden forever.

if you’re not convinced, check out the itune’s single of the week free download (available for one week only). maybe you like it?

allow me to share an exhilarating experience i had about five minutes ago. i read this post on stereogum about a vancouver band called the mohawk lodge. after listening to the mp3s, i wanted to hear more, so i checked my favorite bit torrent sites. the search turned up no results.

i checked itunes to see if they were even listing the album. sure enough, there it was. the release date said july 31, but instead of having the pre-order button, it had the add album button. it seemed odd, since the album is not supposed to be available until next week. i decided to see what would happen if i tried to buy it. i thought maybe they would charge me and then it would get downloaded next tuesday. nope. it started downloading right away.

so now i’m listening to some great music i just found out about seven minutes ago, tried to steal six minutes ago, and ended up buying legitimately five minutes ago. why? because the album was only available through legitimate means, and it was sold without a redundant release date. this is obviously an isolated incident, probably thanks to it being canadian music. still, someone is $8.91 richer because they didn’t make me wait until next tuesday when i would have been able to find it for free. well played.

after news of the canned botulism recall, i was in no hurry to eat the cattle drive canned chili we have in the cupboard, even though that particular brand had not been recalled. then today, we read in the newspaper that cattle drive chili was now being included in the recall. so i checked the codes and sure enough, our four cans of chili were capable of containing clostridium botulinum.

now, it’s probably just a precaution because they don’t want to be hit with a million lawsuits. we already consumed four cans in the past couple months, and no signs of the botulism have shown up. still, i trashed the remaining four cans. safety first.

i wonder if homeless shelters check for food recalls on the donated canned food they receive. i have this mental image of some terrible person taking all their cans of contaminated chili and donating them to a homeless shelter. like a good rags-to-riches story, some bum named john castleberries eats 20 cans of chili and turns into botulism man, defender of food borne illnesses. coming to theaters in 2009.

looks like somebody got a little older today. happy birthday.

(pwned.)

back in 2001, i remember downloading some music by a guy name kenna. the music rocked my socks clean off and i listened to it nonstop for months.

that whole time, i maintained hope that the cd would see release and i could buy it and show my support for a truly talented musician. that day finally came two years after downloading the album. i went to great lengths and many local music stores to find a copy of the cd, which didn’t want to be found.

now, in the year 2007, we are but a month away from his second release. i’ve heard a few songs on his myspace and from his live earth performance, and i am highly anticipating this release. i feel like this time around, i owe it to him to buy the album without downloading it first. you know, as payment for the two years i got to enjoy his first album for free.

i just finished reading a post on his myspace whining about how when the new album leaks, it will adversely effect the artist in the long run. and here i thought kenna was one of those cool musicians, just trying to make things work in a fucked system. maybe he still is that guy, but he comes off sounding like a major corporate tool.

also in his post, he talks about the album’s release date changing again. hopefully, for him, it will be getting pushed up instead of back again. in fact, if the album were available on itunes right now, i could guarantee at least one copy would be sold.

they just don’t get it. selling music has very little to do with mass marketing anymore. it has to do with availability. they should start small and try selling albums on itunes two weeks prior to their cd release date. the only problem with that is the fear of losing cd sales. well, sometimes you have to take a risk.

as for kenna, i still want his new album, but let’s just say i’m having my doubts about his commitment to sparkle motion (if you catch my drift).